1992 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Javelin Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Javelin throw
gender	Men
Attendees	32 athletes from 21 countries
Competition location	Olympic Stadium Barcelona
Competition phase	August 7, 1992 (qualification) August 8, 1992 (final)
Medalist Jan Železný ( TCH )   Seppo Räty ( FIN )   Steve Backley ( GBR )

The men's javelin throw at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona was held on August 7th and 8th, 1992 in the Barcelona Olympic Stadium. 32 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Czechoslovak Jan Železný , who won ahead of the Finn Seppo Räty . The bronze medal went to Steve Backley from Great Britain.

For Germany, Volker Hadwich started. He reached the finals and was twelfth.
Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Title holder

Olympic champion in 1988	Tapio Korjus ( Finland )	84.28 m	Seoul 1988
World Champion 1991	Kimmo Kinnunen ( Finland )	90.82 m	Tokyo 1991
European champion 1990	Steve Backley ( Great Britain )	87.30 m	Split 1990
Pan American champion 1991	Ramón González ( Cuba )	79.12 m	Havana 1991
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1991	Juan de la Garza ( Mexico )	75.78 m	Xalapa 1991
South American Champion 1991	Luís Lucumí ( Colombia )	74.42 m	Manaus 1991
Asian champion 1991	Zhang Lianbiao ( People's Republic of China )	81.52 m	Kuala Lumpur 1991
African Champion 1992	Tom Petranoff ( South Africa )	87.26 m	Belle Vue Maurel 1992
Oceania Champion 1990	James Goulding ( Fiji )	71.54 m	Suva 1990

Existing records

World record	91.46 m	Steve Backley ( Great Britain )	North Shore City , New Zealand	January 25, 1992
Olympic record	85.90 m	Jan Železný ( Czechoslovakia )	Seoul , South Korea Qualifying	September 24, 1988

Comment on the records:
With 94.58 m the Hungarian Miklós Németh had achieved the last Olympic record with the javelin used until 1987 in Montreal on July 26th, 1976 .
The last world record with the old javelin was 104.80 m and was set on July 20, 1984 by GDR thrower Uwe Hohn in East Berlin .

qualification

Date: August 7, 1992

For the qualification, the athletes were drawn into two groups. The qualification distance for direct entry into the final was 80.00 m. Since only eight throwers exceeded this distance (highlighted in light blue), the final field was filled with the next best athletes from both groups to twelve participants (highlighted in light green). So finally 79.14 m was enough for the final.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Jan Železný	Czechoslovakia	83.96 m	-	-	83.96 m
2	Tom Pukstys	United States	74.30 m	81.16 m	-	81.16 m
3	Gavin Lovegrove	New Zealand	76.28 m	x	81.04 m	81.04 m
4th	Juha Laukkanen	Finland	x	77.14 m	79.78 m	79.78 m
5	Mick Hill	Great Britain	76.30 m	76.76 m	79.66 m	79.66 m
6th	Sigurdur Einarsson	Iceland	76.06 m	77.02 m	79.50 m	79.50 m
7th	Viktor Saizew	EUN	75.24 m	x	79.12 m	79.12 m
8th	Patrik Bodén	Sweden	75.78 m	x	77.70 m	77.70 m
9	Ivan Mustapic	Croatia	75.66 m	77.50 m	x	77.50 m
10	Julián Sotelo	Spain	x	75.34 m	72.98 m	75.34 m
11	Brian Crouser	United States	71.42 m	74.98 m	x	74.98 m
12	Zhang Lianbiao	People's Republic of China	70.84 m	73.86 m	73.68 m	73.86 m
13	Nigel Bevan	Great Britain	x	73.78 m	x	73.78 m
14th	Terry McHugh	Ireland	70.76 m	73.26 m	71.64 m	73.26 m
15th	Stephen Feraday	Canada	70.94 m	x	x	70.94 m
16	Youssef Ali Nesaif	Bahrain	55.24 m	53.80 m	52.30 m	55.24 m

Group B

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Volker Hadwich	Germany	81.10 m	-	-	81.10 m
2	Steve Backley	Great Britain	79.36 m	80.76 m	-	80.76 m
3	Seppo Räty	Finland	78.96 m	80.24 m	-	80.24 m
4th	Kimmo Kinnunen	Finland	80.22 m	-	-	80.22 m
	Andrei Shevchuk	EUN	80.22 m	-	-	80.22 m
6th	Michael Barnett	United States	77.08 m	79.14 m	75.34 m	79.14 m
7th	Einar Vilhjálmsson	Iceland	76.18 m	76.82 m	78.70 m	78.70 m
8th	Dag Wennlund	Sweden	76.28 m	77.70 m	77.88 m	77.88 m
9	Dmitri Polyunin	EUN	x	75.70 m	76.40 m	76.40 m
10	Mārcis Štrobinders	Latvia	73.76 m	x	76.32 m	76.32 m
11	Peter Borglund	Sweden	71.38 m	74.72 m	72.70 m	74.72 m
12	Masami Yoshida	Japan	71.66 m	73.68 m	73.88 m	73.88 m
13	Vadim Bavikin	Israel	73.88 m	x	73.24 m	73.88 m
14th	Kim Ki-hoon	South Korea	72.68 m	69.30 m	68.26 m	72.68 m
15th	Nery Kennedy	Paraguay	65.00 m	55.10 m	59.34 m	65.00 m
ogV	Ghanim Mabrouk	Kuwait	x	x	x		without space

final

The German Volker Hadwich took twelfth place in the final

Date: August 8, 1992

Twelve athletes had qualified for the final, eight of them over the required qualification distance, four more over their placements. All three Finns were in the final, as well as two US Americans and two participants from Great Britain. The final field was completed by one participant each from Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia and the United Team.

A duel was expected between the 1988 Olympic runner-up Jan Železný from Czechoslovakia and the British world record holder and European champion Steve Backley. Other medal candidates were the two Finns Kimmo Kinnunen, world champion 1991 , as well as Seppo Räty, vice world champion 1991 and Olympic knight 1988,

Železný took the lead in the first lap with the new Olympic record of 89.66 m. With 82.44 m Backley had to show in second place more than seven meters less. In the second attempt, Räty reached 86.60 m and displaced Backley in third place. Kinnunen also passed Backley in the second round with 82.62 m. In the fourth lap Backley improved to 83.38 m, which he recaptured third place. Železný had three failed attempts in rounds two, three and six. But his fourth throw in the 88.18 m would have been enough to win. Jan Železný was now Olympic champion after his silver medal in Seoul . Silver and bronze went to Seppo Räty and Steve Backley. The Icelander Sigurður Einarsson and the third Finn Juha Laukkanen took fifth and sixth. Four Northern Europeans were among the top six, including three Finns. Gold and bronze, however, went to Czechoslovakia and Great Britain.

Jan Železný was the first Czechoslovak Olympic champion in the men's javelin .

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Jan Železný	Czechoslovakia	89.66 m OR	x	x	88.18 m	89.66 m	86.28 m	x	OR
2	Seppo Räty	Finland	78.50 m	86.60 m	81.44 m	83.22 m	x	x	86.60 m
3	Steve Backley	Great Britain	82.44 m	82.02 m	79.46 m	83.38 m	78.32 m	79.86 m	83.38 m
4th	Kimmo Kinnunen	Finland	x	82.86 m	x	x	x	x	82.86 m
5	Sigurdur Einarsson	Iceland	79.52 m	75.02 m	77.96 m	x	x	80.34 m	80.34 m
6th	Juha Laukkanen	Finland	77.44 m	x	74.56 m	76.92 m	79.20 m	78.46 m	79.20 m
7th	Michael Barnett	United States	78.64 m	78.58 m	x	77.70 m	74.12 m	x	78.64 m
8th	Andrei Shevchuk	EUN	77.00 m	x	77.74 m	x	x	73.42 m	77.74 m
9	Gavin Lovegrove	New Zealand	74.46 m	77.08 m	76.78 m	not in the final of the eight best throwers			77.08 m
10	Tom Pukstys	United States	76.72 m	x	72.12 m				76.72 m
11	Mick Hill	Great Britain	75.50 m	x	72.02 m				75.50 m
12	Volker Hadwich	Germany	75.28 m	72.98 m	70.12 m				75.28 m

Web links

• SportsReference Javelin , accessed February 13, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Barcelona , athletics results: p. 52, Catalan / Spanish / English / French (PDF, 38.871 MB), accessed on February 13, 2018

Video

• Men's Javelin Final Barcelona Olympics 1992 , published November 9, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed February 13, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 680 , accessed on February 13, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official report on the Olympic Games in Barcelona , athletics results: p. 52, Catalan / Spanish / English / French (PDF, 38.871 MB), accessed on February 13, 2018